Chris, a Luftwaffe First Lieutenant submits his “Things I trust everyday” as our pocket dump for today, brought to us by Everyday Carry.

The Kent 20T folding comb on the left side caught my attention first.  Yes, a folding comb.  Eh, hair is over-rated.

He’s also got a well-worn Colt Government Model 1911A1.  I’m curious, that magazine butt plate looks strange.  Nothing like the mags for my 1911A1.  Can anyone offer any explanations?  While I have one or two (cough) 1911s, they are not my area of expertise.

Chris obviously likes the basic black motif.  Nothing wrong with that.  I like the Boker Magnum knife.  Mercedes?  Expected.  Seiko Sportura watch?  Maybe not so much.  The only thing missing from Chris’ pocket?  An illumination tool!

Thoughts?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

70 COMMENTS

    • The same way my cousin did the entire time she was stationed there, carrying an M9 all day, every day.

      Military service members get different rules under German law. From my understanding, so long as one is legitimately in the military and in uniform on their way to duty, their way home from duty or on duty they are allowed to carry a sidearm or, if their duty requires it, a rifle.

      • I get that, but two things, one: why then would he be carrying a 1911? Wouldn’t it have to be an issued weapon? (I’m assuming that because there’s little to no private firearms market, and it stands to reason they’d be forced to carry an issued weapon anyway.) And two, I assumed that like the US, the German military wouldn’t allow its soldiers to carry their issued weapons, or like the US, outright forbid them to carry any privately issued weapons on base. Now I get I could be wrong in that, because not every nation treats their soldiers like special needs children like the US does.

        • If one is to assume the gun is real, which some seem to think it’s not and it would seem they have reasonable evidence to back up that assertion, I have no idea.

          All I can tell you is what rules applied to US Army Officers and some of their German counterparts stationed in Germany in 1998 as it was explained to me by my cousin at the time. For her, it really didn’t matter because she was issued an M9. That’s what she had and that’s what she carried.

        • Some things must have changed in the 10 years I’ve been out, or possibly due to the fact I was stationed in NY. But I was infantry and I would get hassled at the gate all the time for carrying a “knife that was too big” or carrying a “machete.” I once had to have my plt sgt come down to the gate and rescue me from being detained for having a machete strapped to my pack. Guns were absolutely forbidden, (I lived off base) to the point where after a weekend trip to the range I was also detained for having spent brass in my car.

      • Then the service has changed a great deal.
        In my time you carried only if authorized by your Commander and for specific reasons. Like escorting prisoners, transporting weapons or classified materials. Weapons were issued and privately owned weapons were stored in the company arms room unless you lived in married housing.
        These rules included Commissioned Officers.

  2. I don’t think it’s a real pistol. Safety appears to be engaged, but the hammer is down. Mag butt plate way too short.

    • There are more variations on the 1911 than you can shake a stick at. Many have oddball characteristics, like the Seecamp 1911’s that are double action.

      • Strych9, read further posts. Seems I, like Trump, have been exonerated. A CO2 pistol. Seems you know about as much about 1911s as you do double edged knives. Kidding. No hard feelings. We need everyone we can get on our side.

        • I never once claimed to have intimate knowledge of the 1911 platform. In fact, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on this board for the past 3+ years saying that I don’t understand the love affair many have with a pistol that I consider to be a range toy. Maybe that’s some part of why RF didn’t hire me a couple years ago to write about 1911’s.

          Also, as I’ve said before, if someone who really knows 1911’s offers me evidence that I’m wrong about them then I am happy to consider that evidence and change my position on them if I find that evidence convincing. Until that time what I do know about them indicates to me that they’re now an outdated design in terms of a carry pistol and, as of today, no one has yet stepped up to offer any evidence to the contrary.

        • Damn! Not are you “less than knowledgeable.” You’re prickly too. And would be funny. If you weren’t initiating ignorance into the uninitiated. One post giving at least some bonifides? Please?

        • “You’re prickly too. And would be funny.”

          Gauntlet, thrown.

          Time to pop some corn… 😉

        • Prickly?

          Not really. Disagreeable and nettlesome, perhaps. Arrogant, probably.

          Here’s the core of this though:

          I simply have a low tolerance for the sort of douchebaggery which you’ve shown in spades. If you want to argue, that’s fine. In fact, I love arguing. Tell me I’m wrong with no basis for your argument, also totally fine. That’s even amusing. You go out of your way to insult me, but are too much of a pansy to do it directly, again mildly amusing. As I said to you on that very thread: Ask me where I got the idea and I’m happy to tell you. Simply tell me it’s not true because you saw someone do something else and I’m going to ignore your arguments because they’re not arguments. Such a style isn’t worth my time to rebutt since it would be a waste of time to do it correctly and simply pulling a “Gadsden Flag” and saying you’re a 16 year old with no vitae of your own would be a counter argument with exactly the same weight as the one you advance: zero.

          To be frank: I couldn’t give a fuck less what some faceless twatwaffle on the internet thinks when they’ve shown that estimating their brain cell count in the double digits might be rather generous. Really, I don’t much care what you say because so far as I can tell you’ve never said anything useful or remotely intelligent. You’re like the retards who tell me that cucumbers cure diabetes or carrots cure glaucoma. This makes you a sad joke, doubly so because you don’t even realize how colossally retarded what you’re saying is so you couldn’t be saying it out of a vicious sense of irony and self-depreciating humor.

          However, when you use your passive-aggressive bullshit to troll someone else into an argument you’re having with me, someone who happens to be one of the most down-on-their-luck people on this board right now, and then proceed to personally insult them because you’re mad at me… Well at that point, I start to think you’re one of those people who gets off on kicking other people while they’re down and then we’ve turned a corner where my opinion of your value to this species nosedives. At that point you’re not even comical. You’re just mean spirited and obviously have some serious issues to work out before you’re worth engaging with in a serious manner.

          Further, loads of my personal history has been posted on this board previously. You asking for credentials, which you’ll simply say are lies/exaggerations/questionable anyway (because you done saw some shit (some SHIT!!!) that proves everything you say is true because an appeal to ignorance is, in your mind, a valid argument), isn’t a request worth honoring. Especially since you claimed that you could go back and look at previous posts which contained said information. So, rather than asking me to do your homework why don’t you fuck off and do it yourself the way you claimed you were already doing?

          Now, since I do have a stupid streak in me, and admittedly so, I’ll play a round of your little dick-measuring contest here. Who am I and what do I know? Well I’m the guy that Robert Farago got a hold of out of the blue with a job offer because of what I said in the comment section on this board. Apparently he placed some minor value in my opinion since not only did he offer me a job but he also used to call me reasonably frequently to ask questions, get my opinion on something or have me do some research on places he wanted to go with TTAG before he decided to sell the site. Or maybe I’m just making that shit up because I read something similar in a book. Maybe you could do some research, you know the kind you said you do, and see if it’s true.

          So, now you can add that to the list of other stuff you know about me if you bother to go back and read prior posts the way you claim that you do. There, I’ve done my bragging for the day, happy? Nah, you’re probably still pathetic and miserable, but hey, at least you got something you wanted. Or claimed to want. Or something. Welcome to the internet.

        • Jesus! For somebody that doesn’t care what I say you sure as shit spend a long time rebutting me. I couldn’t even finish that last post.

        • Well, Strych9, I’m home from the farm. Couple of us spent the night. Set some fence posts this morning, checked the traps. That kind of thing. Showed them a few of your posts. Including that last tirade. They couldn’t stop laughing. One of them was a sniper on the route that Pope John Paul II took when he visited Miami. Look it up. That’s the kind of company I keep. So what if you got a phone call. Again, you sound long on theory, (I read it on line.), but what have you done?

        • Oh, man, was that some *good* popcorn. It really hit the spot.

          Drenched in butter and *extra* salty.

          Thanks, Strych!

          *snicker* 😉

      • Maybe .380 ACP (short baseplate)?The small 1911-ish in .380 made by Kimber, Colt, Sig and Springfield all allow hammer-down, thumb safety up carry.

      • Strych9 – You and I seem to see eye to eye on many things but one thing we don’t is on the 1911. I would challenge you to go to the range and shoot 500 rounds from a decent 1911. Not necessarily in .45 ACP. I’m a 38 Super person. Don’t aim it. Just point and shoot.

        That’s the thing (to me anyway) about the 1911. It just shoots where you think it should go. It’s the most natural feeling gun in your hand.

        If I knew where you were I’d supply the gun and the ammo for the range trip.

    • Oh well, if you have a friend of a friend who was a sniper for the Pope……………………

      Holy cow! You must be some kind of scuba ranger rescue swimmer observer or something.

      I’m going to tell all my friends that I know you.

      • Klaus, my friend was FDLE SWAT at the time. Going turkey hunting with him in South Carolina in a couple of weeks. If you move in certain circles, you meet certain people. Sorry for your luck if your life isn’t interesting. And don’t tell your friends you know me, because you don’t, and I’m not interested in meeting you. Got a feeling my friends would find you, well, foolish. Sorry.

        • “If you move in certain circles,” or kiss the right asses! Dude, Strych9 cleaned your CLOCK and couldn’t have happened to a more arrogant, opinionated asshat. “I showed it to my bad ass heroes and they just laughed,” wow, you really got him! Too funny.

        • You are full of shit Gadsden. What class did that sniper graduate from? I’m beginning to think your “experience” is false too. Don’t know many with real exp that act like a class a dumbass.

    • You guys are kidding right? First, that ain’t no double action trigger. Seecamp, or otherwise. .22 LR mag pad? Look at the mainspring housing. I’ve owned Colt and Kimber .22 LR conversion kits. None looked like that. And, there are the previously raised questions of CCW in Germany. Nah, it’s not real.

  4. “I like the Boker Magnum knife. Mercedes? Expected.”

    It surprised me. Military first lieutenants don’t make much money.

    In August of 1980 I was in Hannover, Germany. Walking back from the Hannover HBF, I looked down a side street and saw something surprising to me. *Every* car parked on that city block was a VW ‘Rabbit’. Just Rabbits. No Mercedes, Audis, nothing else…

  5. I used to travel to Germany on business. I once got a question in a business meeting, “How many guns do you own?” I thought about, “All I want” or “Not enough yet”. I went with staying on business topics because what would have been the point?

    • To have some fun with a bunch jealous German subjects…er ..citizens.

      My response is usually ….”on me?”

    • Bingo…it appears that our German 1st Lt is busted as a wanna be USC (US Citizen)…with all the affiliated Rights* and privileges.

      In response to a different comment: private firearm ownership is waaay up in Germany since the Merkel government’s massive relocation of Middle Eastern “refugees” to Deutschland.

      *to wit: the Second Amendment – A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

        • Naw, don’t think he is in-country on a NATO visa. The nature of the Interwebz is that people from just about anywhere can contribute to sites like Everyday Carry. Most likely, an officer in Germany who desperately wishes he was a USC lawfully carrying a REAL firearm. Life truly sucks under authoritarian regimes…

      • “Bingo…it appears that our German 1st Lt is busted as a wanna be USC (US Citizen)…with all the affiliated Rights* and privileges.”
        Can’t say that I blame him.

      • No, if it’s a 9mm PAK it’s a blank firing pistol. Germans cna buy them all day long but they are not a real pistol in anyways. Sometimes someone will try to convert one to fire real 9mm but they usually end up with a face full of zinc shrapnel.

        The right side of the pistol would tell the truth of this story.

        • I can see that it says 9mm but it looks like it is blurred out after that. Their pellet pistols are marked 4.5mm.

      • Got me thinkin’ (which is something a man shouldn’t do on a Saturday night). The Umarex 1911 fires a 0.35 gram (5.4 grains) BB at (roughly) 393 fps for a KE of 2 ft pounds. A .25 ACP fires a 50 grain projectile at 770 fps for a KE of 65 ft pounds..these figures pale in light of a standard baseball thrown at 95 MPH with a resultant KE of 88 ft pounds and a properly driven golf ball will generate 117 ft pounds of KE…

        …it appears that if you have some balls and a properly sized driver that you are well prepared to meet adversity head on…

        Goodnight all.

  7. Don’t forget, Mercedes sells much cheaper, more “downmarket” models in other countries compared to their U.S. lineup.

    I also want to know what’s up with that Colt.

  10. It is possible to get a Concealed Weapons License in Germany but is very, very difficult. I doubt a military officer would qualify. When I lived there and had a weapons license I asked about CCW. They exist but only for the elite and well connected.

  11. Perhaps he’s stationed at Holloman AFB, or elsewhere in the USA? The German Air Force has (had?) a training contingent at Holloman AFB in New Mexico for years. Europe is too crowded to practice dog fighting, so they have the Air Force equivalent of top gun playing in the NM airspace. The 2 year assignment are popular because of double pay.

    • Also true at other USAF bases, such as Shepperd with NATO pilot training. Probably true of the other services with NATO ties as well, but I haven’t seen it.

      • …or Ft. Bliss, TX – US Army Air Defense Artillery Training Center. We used to run lots of German enlisted and officers through the ADA courses. We had a German Major living next door for a couple of years…took his family to Hueco Tanks for rock scrambling, White Sands for sand surfing and played two rounds of golf with him at the golf course in Cloudcroft, NM (1st tee box is at 9,000 feet above sea level – only nine holes, so you play twice for a breathtaking [sic] 18 holes).

  12. Lol a bullshit air gun, no holster, and a country that hates freedom. These EDC posts are constant comedy. Dumb kraut.

  14. Probably one of those fake Mercedes Benz 8GB USB drives too.

    TTAG, thanks for the laugh.

  15. That is not a firearm by “most” US state definitions.

    Glad I dont live in a country where an airsoft gun is all I can use to defend myself.

    Hell.. in Britain, I guess they carry pictures or guns…or ictures of knives now.

    That will soon be illegal too.

    If I were Herman Goering here, I would at least carry one of the Walther pepper spray pistols. They at least look cool. This is just sad.

  19. Thoughts: It’s evident the citizens of the U.S. don’t know what their doing and if the government doesn’t step in and force it’s citizens to behave this country is going to wind up a dictatorship.

    • Huh???? Wtf is wrong with YOU!!!!
      IF YOU WANT TO BE LED AROUND LIKE A CHILD BY SOME STUPID MFKN BUREAUCRAT, MOVE TO GERMANY…

      AS FAR AS CARRYING A AIR GUN AS EDC, IF THAT’S ALL YOU CAN HAVE BECAUSE SOME POS BUREAUCRAT SAYS YOU CAN’T PROTECT YOURSELF FROM PEOPLE LIKE THE DUMBASS WHO I’M REPLYING TO, THEN I WOULD CARRY THE FKN AIR GUN…

      ONCE AGAIN, WE HAVE A BUNCH OF “OPERATORS” LAUGHING AT WHAT A REAL OPERATOR DOES FOR EDC….

      YOU DUMB MFERS WOULD SHOOT YOURSELVES IN THE FOOT WITH A REAL FIREARM, SO YOU SHOULD STICK WITH THE AIR GUN, LIKE THE GERMAN MILITARY OFFICER IS DOING, AND I’M SURE HE’S NOT DOING IT BY CHOICE….

      IT’S SO SAD TO SEE THE COMMENTS FROM BRAIN DEAD ANTIFA MEMBERS ON THIS THREAD….

  22. Everyone is laughing at his CO2 pistol, but hey, he might have a legitimate need for it. Maybe where he lives, there are obnoxious neighborhood dogs that harass him. Unless he hit one at close range right in the eye, it wouldn’t kill, and it probably wouldn’t even seriously injure, but it would hurt and scare most dogs away.

    I had that problem on my paper route as a kid back in the 70s. I used a bike lock on a cable for the same purpose. Never actually hit a dog with it, but swung a few times when they tried to harass me and they got the message.

    Y’know, like the postman with his little can of mace.

    Maybe lieutenant’s pay in the Bundeswher stinks and he has to deliver newspapers on the side to make ends meet.

    Just sayin’…

    Seriously, though, yeah, another commenter here is right and concealed carry is difficult – though not impossible – to get in Germany. That said, Germany has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the deveoloped first world; not as high as ours but in the top five, easy. They have no 2A but private gun ownership is a long tradition in Germany which many there still practice, not unlike Switzerland. The Czech Republic is another place where gun ownership is fairly common.

    I have friends in various parts of Europe. They tell me that private gun ownership isn’t quite as restricted there as most Americans believe. It varies greatly depending on the particular country. The UK is really bad, so is the Netherlands. A Swede told me that a lot of people in Continental European countries have guns but they are not as open about it as we Americans.

  23. I don’t know why everyone has their shorts in knots over this guy’s obvious CO2 pistol, It’s most likely all he can legally carry. Besides, in a dangerous encounter, if someone pulls a gun on you, are you really going to question the caliber????….come on guys lighten up on each other. Opinions are just that, opinions, no need for name calling or snide remarks, it’s getting old.

    • We’re snide because he’s clearly trying to pass it off as the real thing.

      Snide because it’s pathetic that a grown man and military officer can’t be trusted by his own government to carry a sidearm.

      Snide because it’s like posting pictures of your Pontiac Fiero with a body kit on a Ferrari owner’s forum.

  25. As others who have knowledge of 1911’s have observed it is obviously a fake gun. To bad the author isn’t knowledgable about his subject. Could it be TTAG has been infiltrated by leftist entities?

    • Just Glock babies.

      There are Glocks…..and other guns…made by …..some xompany.

  26. even Herman the German knows that The Great Prophet John Moses Browning’s (PBUH) masterpiece, the Colt 1911, is the apex of human technological achievement…

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